Copy-Editor Preliminary Brief
From “Preliminary Copy-Editing, Design and Specimen Pages¨ in Butcher’s Copy-Editing
The copy-editor might be asked to draw up a preliminary brief to enable the designer to prepare a design (or composition) specification […].
Preliminary brief
What is a preliminary brief, i.e. what does it consist of or what is it comprised of?
The creation of a preliminary brief follows on the presumption that one has:
From “Preliminary Copy-Editing, Design and Specimen Pages¨ in Butcher’s Copy-Editing
[…] the complete typescript to hand, […] it may be that you are provided with and asked to mark up only a few typescript pages so that the designer and typesetter can produce the preliminary design specification and specimen pages if required.
Typescript
What is a typescript?
As for what a specimen page is:
From “Preliminary Copy-Editing, Design and Specimen Pages¨ in Butcher’s Copy-Editing
Specimen pages are intended to show solutions to all the general typographical problems in a book or series. A specimen may consist of as little as one page to show small, recurring features such as those in a dictionary, or as many as eight for exceptionally varied and complicated material.
It is said that “four pages should usually be enough to give an idea of what the designer has in mind¨ (Butcher, et al 2006, 21).
flowchart LR A["author's typescript"] --> B["editor's preliminary brief on that typescript"] --> C["designer's specimen pages guided by editor's preliminary brief"]
graphic_design publishing editor editing briefs copy-editing preliminary_brief design design_composition_specification design_specification composition_specification writing publishing
bibliography
- “Preliminary Copy-Editing, Design and Specimen Pages.” In Butcher’s Copy-Editing: The Cambridge Handbook for Editors, Copy-Editors and Proofreaders, 4th ed., 17–27. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 2006.